Originally published under the auspices of the United States NationalMuseum (now the Smithsonian), this book is the most comprehensivescholarly study of the history and use of the ancient swastika symbol everundertaken. Its author, Thomas Wilson, participated in the excavationof an Indian burial mound in Ohio where several large copper swastikaswere discovered. This unusual find sparked Wilson's curiosity and led tothe research that ultimately became this book.The swastika symbol occurs in Mesopotamia and India as early as 8000years ago, and prolifically on artifacts unearthed at the site of ancientTroy. It also appears on hundreds of Greek ceramic objects of theGeometric period, dating between the tenth and seventh centuries BC.Its use by indigenous peoples along the Mississippi and Amazon Riversbefore 300 AD has raised serious questions about a possible diffusion fromEurasia. How or when this may have occurred, however, has never beenestablished, nor has the underlying significance of the swastika ever beenfully understood.The front cover illustration is from the book "Tree of Life, MythicalArchetype" by Gregory Haynes, also published by Symbolon Press. Hayneswas the first to observe that the four largest rivers on the four continentsbordering the Atlantic Ocean (the Nile, Amazon, Mississippi, and Baltic)stand in relation to each other as do the outer arms of an enormousswastika. In "Tree of Life, Mythical Archetype" he persuasively argues thatancient navigators mapped these four rivers and derived the swastikafrom them.This is a facsimile edition of Wilson's 1896 report, which includes all of his writings on the subject of the swastika. The text quality is generally good, while the quality of the more than 450 illustrations is very good to excellent.